Search engine using world map with whois database search restriction

ABSTRACT

In most of the Internet search operations, unwanted search results can be eliminated to reduce the high volume of the Internet traffic, and make the search operation highly efficient, according to the present invention. The present invention proposes a two step approach. The first step is to achieve the high relevance of the search results by search region restricted search operation. The second step, further adds high degree of relevance to the search results by the contact address correlation with a reliable reference address or the legitimate contact address eliminating the crap and squatter sites from the search result list. The region restricted search does searching in a selected geographical region. Thus the region restricted search operation minimizes the search time and huge volume of Internet traffic, which is likely to impair the overall Internet performance.

CROSS REFERENCE TO PRIORITY APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. Utility applicationSer. No. 11/847,094, filed Aug. 29, 2007, now issued as U.S. Pat. No.______, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety forall purposes.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to Internet searches and morespecifically to geographical information based search restrictions.

2. Related Art

Searching for information on the Internet is a very common activity thatrequires the use of a browser capable of retrieving information from awebsite. In such an operation, a search website is accessed and searchterms provided by a user by typing in search terms in a free form textformat. A search engine receives the search terms and retrieves results.During most of the search operations that are performed using currentsearch engines, geographical information is not used as part of thesearch. Therefore, search results are returned that include informationon products and/or services that may be available only half way aroundthe world, which are not very useful to a user. People desiring tolocate a store or a service using the search engine typically want tofind results relating to products and services that are geographicallyproximate. However, most information produced by the search is devoid ofinformation regarding “proximity” to a user.

To address this problem, some search engine produce maps that directlyshow locations of businesses having web pages produced by the search.Often times, though, a large list of search results are generated anddisplayed on a map on the client device's screen resulting in a map thatis cluttered with markers corresponding to the search results. Further,the businesses identified on the map may only be partially relevant tothe search. In the few map based search engines that are currentlyavailable, there is no means to control the items that show up in asearch list in terms of the proximity to the user's current location.There are no means to facilitate control on the arbitrary size of thesearch region by which a user can systematically partition a largesearch area on the map and do the search operations, systematically onthe world map.

With current search engines, a search region may be selectable only to acertain extent for a predefined area or a location such a city, a state,or a country, for example. Often search results identify serviceproviders or stores that do not really exist in the region where theyare purported to conduct business. Often, when searching for stores in acity, business and web pages show up during a search that are thousandsof miles away from the city of interest.

Online maps often provide zooming functionality. User's areas ofinterest may be zoomed to a possible extent and the details of locationsfor businesses can be selected and visualized. If the area or thelocation of the map is too large and, also, if the user is not aware ofthe topography of the area, it will be very difficult or confusing tozoom on a particular street and pick a desired business firm's premises.In other words it becomes difficult for the user to pick exactly a smalllocation from a predefined large area or location. In this process, thelocation a user is searching for cannot be resolved properly to selectthe required ones, mostly when there is a lot of clutter within a smallsearch region of the world map.

In a search operation using current search engines, the user has nocontrol, or at best, a limited control, of the search result output fora given search string. The search results presented to the user is inthe order of the relevance of the webpage to a user entered searchstring or on the basis of the popularity of the website. This criterionbuilt into the current search engines are not always the best ones. Forexample, if a user is looking for a restaurant in a nearby place, thesearch results are provided in a distance-wise order of the physicaladdress of the restaurant from the current location of the user. Oftenthe restaurants located are not related to the user's location, or arelocated elsewhere but still show up in the search results.

There are huge number of Internet squatters and scammer who try to pushtheir business illegally on the Internet. Their web links get indexed bysearch engines as are other legal and authentic websites and areproduced during the search, confusing or misleading the user intopicking an appropriate search item from the search result list. Currentsearch engine have no effective algorithms or techniques built-in, thatcan either warn or block sites that are related to Internet squattersand scammers. Because of this shortcoming, the Internet has become ahaven for illegitimate businesses and scammers. Resultantly, legal andauthentic businesses lose their business to scam artists. Current searchengines fail to test and block unauthorized or illegal businesses.Search engines simply have no control of Internet squatters andscammers.

Current search engines do not have any built-in techniques that candetermine the current GPS (Global Positioning System) location of theuser and mark it on the world map, or use it for searches. In that case,user often has no clue on his current location in an unknown remotecity, and can guess at best. Therefore it is hard to find, for e.g. acoffee shop, even though he is able to find some coffee shops that showup on his laptop during a search. This is due to a lack of an ability toincorporate GPS coordinates (longitude and latitude in angle) insearches, which is a serious drawback.

Many current search engines generate redundant search results, whichappear as search results simply because they are relevant to the searchstring. In some cases users are interested in performing a search basedupon the correlation of a search string with titles of sought web pages,not on the basis of correlation of the search string with web pagecontent. Because most search engines correlate search strings to allcontent of searched web pages, most of the search results are unusableor irrelevant because relevant web pages do not appear high in thesearch results. Further limitations and disadvantages of conventionaland traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skillin the art through comparison of such systems with the presentinvention.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to apparatus and methods of operationthat are further described in the following Brief Description of theDrawings, the Detailed Description of the Invention, and the claims.Other features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following detailed description of the invention madewith reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network that facilitates searching on theInternet with a map based searching technique accompanied by searchregion restriction and a Whois data based verification of legitimacy ofsearch results;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the generation of an “aggregateWhois database” derived from a plurality of Whois databases maintainedby different service providers, in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a plurality of domain nameservers communicatively coupled to a Whois server, wherein the Whoisserver monitors domain name registration and gathers relevant data, inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is block diagram illustrating the generation of a “Physicaladdress versus reverse index database” and “reverse index database”using the “Physical address and Reverse index assembler” module of thesearch engine server;

FIG. 5 is an exemplary set of registration information with associatedformats collected from business registration information, such as thoseprovided to domain registration servers and those maintained by a Whoisdatabase;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the interaction of an “adaptivesearch module” of the search engine server for implementing searchregion restricted search operation, in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary function of “contactaddress correlator module” of the search engine server of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is an exemplary screen snapshot of a world map based searchoperation supported by a search engine server, built in accordance withthe present invention, that incorporates a Whois database based searchregion restricted search operation;

FIG. 9 is flowchart illustrating an exemplary operation of the searchengine based on Whois database, in accordance with the presentinvention; and

FIG. 10 is flowchart of an exemplary method of operation, performed inconjunction with a user, in using the Whois database based searchengine, in accordance the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective block diagram of a network that supports mapbased searching of documents that incorporates a search engine servercapable of enforcing map based search restrictions and a Whois databaseserver that provides details of location and ownership of websites onthe Internet. The present invention deals with a mechanism in which, bypreprocessing of the user input information, a dramatic reduction in theunwanted and unsolicited webpage traffic is achieved during a searchoperation. The reduction in the volume of the search results arisingfrom spurious and fake sites encountered during a search operation iseffectively implemented as a two step approach, in accordance with thepresent invention, by first by an default search region (size)restriction and second by filtering the spurious and unwanted sites by amethod of address correlation. The term spurious and unwanted sitesrefer to Internet squatters, scammers, and other illegal and dangeroussites and those that add very little value for searches on the Internetin the context of the present invention.

One approach normally followed to contextualize the search operation inthe current search engines is by categorizing the search items atseveral levels making the search contextual, as far as possible.Business related searches are further contextualized by geographicalsearch restrictions. The search restrictions implemented in someembodiments of the search engines are based on the geographic locationwith associated default region restrictions (such as 10 miles around acity center). However, city sizes and areas covered by a city are notwell defined, and cities, are not uniform in size. This makes thespecification of search region restrictions complicated, for e.g. if asearch is made in two different cities with fairly large difference intheir size, the number of hits will likely vary considerably. Thecurrent invention facilitates user defined search regions of arbitrarysize and shapes for additional flexibility in restricting search resultsto those associated with geographical regions of interest.

A first step is employed to reduce the search results from regions oflimited interest to a user, search results from such regions areeliminated based on a user specified region restriction criteria (or adefault one if one is needed). Thus the search region is restrictedbased on the user's choice. The main features of user defined searchregion are its greater flexibility, so that the users can define theirown search region with convenient shape and size, with a convenientsearch center i.e. the center of the search region with GPS (GlobalPositioning System) coordinates. A User can interactively alter thesearch region and relocate its center and do the search iteratively tillhe finds the search objects of his choice, within some convenientdistance from his current location. The flexibility of changing thesearch region size and location makes the life of the mobile community,more comfortable.

A second step is employed to prevent the useless and misleading websitesfrom contaminating the search results. In accordance with thisprinciple, embodiments(s) of the present invention (in addition to thesearch efficiency achieved by search region restriction), implement postprocessing of the search result, based on address correlation. Firstly,when the search is performed for a given search string, web linkscorresponding to that search string and for the specified search regionare gathered together. Secondly, the legitimacy of the web links thatare selected is tested. The legitimacy testing is done with respect tothe contact address of the business firm retrieved from their web linksfrom the (reverse index) database and web pages. In order to do this, areference address (database) is derived from an aggregate Whois databasethat is available. This reference address is considered as the“legitimate contact address” herein. The other record of the address forthe same business firm is from the searched webpage itself, and iscalled as the “webpage based contact address” herein.

When a web link points to a webpage, the webpage legitimacy is firsttested before it gets presented to a user. One of the addresses in thisaddress correlation process is a contact address (physical address) of abusiness or firm retrieved from a webpage included in a preliminarysearch result from a search conducted for a webpage. In one embodiment,a “webpage parser” component of the search engine server parses thewebpage and extracts the contact address from it, and saves it (as“webpage based contact address”) for a subsequent comparison. A“legitimate contact address parser” of the “physical address and reverseindex assembler module” (of the search engine server) extracts therequired “legitimate contact address” for the purpose of the legitimacyproof of the searched item.

A “search crawler” is employed that develops the “reverse indexdatabase” having all the searchable string (items) properly indexed andproviding a reference to the associated document or web page by means ofa URL or other reference means. A “Whois crawler” is employed by asearch engine server that crawls a plurality of “Whois databases” anddevelops an “aggregate Whois database”. The legitimate contact addressparser of the “physical address and reverse index assembler” moduleparses all the registered entity's address and associates them with thecorresponding searchable items of the “reverse index database”. In theprocess of conducting this operation, a new database called as “physicaladdress versus reverse index lookup database” is generated. In someimplementations, it is part of an aggregate Whois database orrepository.

The “physical address versus reverse index lookup database”, not onlyindexes a searchable string (or item) to a specific host machine for itswebpage, it also points an unique physical address (same as itslegitimate contact address, enrolled or registered in the Whoisdatabase) or GPS coordinate of the corresponding business firm to whichthat search result item corresponds to, on the world map.

As the illegal sites are likely to possess a “legitimate contactaddress” enrolled in the Whois database, but with their names existingin the “physical address versus reverse index lookup database” (becausethey too are crawled), they will neither show up on the search resultsnor on a search result map (such as a geographical world map), nor inthe final search result list (presented in the side pane of the searchengine window). This is because of zero or negligible addresscorrelation determined by a “contact address correlator module” of thesearch engine.

Also, a single searchable string (comprising a product name or theparticulars of an item being searched, etc.) is often associated withmultiple web links pointing to different web servers and each of the weblinks often have a legitimate contact address being enrolled in theWhois database. But as the search region is restricted, only thoseaddresses associated with that search string that exist in thatspecified geographic location (or the search region) will show up in thesearch list (restrictions on results that show up in a search resultset), as well as on the world map (search region or search window), withother addresses, naturally filtered. This filtering happens because ofnegligible or zero spatial (or regional) correlation determined by a“reverse index belongs to search region computing module” of the“adaptive search module” of the search engine.

The term legitimacy of business firm refers to a status verified via anofficial registration on a domain-name servers (that are crawled duringa search operation) and on a “Whois server” or a “Whois repository”,which provides a verification service by maintaining a database of allthe domain-name registered websites. In some prior search engines manyillegal links shows up during a search operation. Sometimes this happensdue to the redirecting of web links. For example, illegal web links or aproxy web link with no value added services can appear on a registeredwebpage. When the registered webpage gets crawled, automatically theillegal web links and the proxy web links also show up in the searchresult list. If a user's mouse clicks on those web links, they opentheir web pages like any legal web pages. If these illegal web links(that appear in the registered webpage) are directly entered in theaddress bar of a network browser, the webpage presented will not be sameas that obtained during a mouse clicked and opened from a search result,often leading to an unknown or irrelevant web site, indicating that theyare illegal or useless.

An “aggregate Whois database” that collects Whois data from one or moreWhois servers or databases acts as a reference database for thelegitimacy checks of a business or firm that shows up during a searchoperation from having its website hosted on a server. For example, suchan aggregate Whois database has to be derived as an aggregate collectionof all the registration (details or information) from different Whoisdatabases existing in different part of the world. During theaggregation of information from one or more Whois databases, it ispossible to cross check the information retrieved from more than onesource, thereby making it possible to be more accurate in terms ofcontact details of all the registered business and firms.

A large number of Whois databases are maintained by different serviceproviders on the Internet. A search engine module called a “Whoiscrawler” aggregates the contents of all the individual Whois databasesin a suitable format, giving rise to the “aggregate Whois database” thatacts like a repository accessible during a search operation. Thisdatabase can be updated periodically by running the Whois crawler, toreflect the changes that occur from time to time.

Each of the Whois databases maintained by respective service providersthat contribute to the information to the aggregate Whois database arein turn an aggregate collection of domain name registration details from“domain-name servers” (for example). The individual Whois databasemanages the registration process of a particular domain. For example,registrations for domains ending with .net, .com, .org, etc. may bemanaged by a domain-name server and be associated with a correspondingWhois database. Again a crawler or a similar module on a Whois servercan assemble the registration details on all the domain-name servers andmaintains it as a “Whois database”, which is subsequently crawled by theWhois crawler in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network 101 that facilitates searching onthe Internet with a map based searching technique accompanied by searchregion restriction and a Whois data based verification of legitimacy ofsearch results. In particular, a world map based search engine server109 with access to Whois data, such as from a Whois database, is able toenforce search region restriction, in accordance with the presentinvention. The network 101 comprises the search engine server 109, aplurality of Whois database servers 103, and a plurality of clientdevices 107 that are communicatively coupled via Internet 105.

The search engine server 109 has multiple databases such as ageographical database 117 and a location database 111. The geographicaldatabase 117 further comprises a database related to world map database119, and a satellite database 121. The world map database 119 containsthe world map data in the image form which can be viewed with differentmagnifications on the client device display, if required. The satellitedatabase 121 contains the topography view of the satellite's earthsurface picture.

The location database 111 of search engine server 109 has theinformation that can be overlaid with the world map to locate preciselythe position on the world map. The GPS database 113 has GPS coordinatesinformation of a large number of discrete points considered on the worldmap at the resolution sufficient to resolve smaller structures (for e.g.smaller buildings) on the earth's surface. The discrete pointsconsidered are on a rectangular grid of latitude and longitude seen onthe world map. If the grid size is small it is easy to determine thelocation of a place precisely in terms of the GPS coordinates.

The “physical address versus reverse index lookup database” 115 of thelocation database 111, is the combination of the “reverse indexdatabase” 125 with the “legitimate contact address” extracted from theaggregate Whois database 123. In the process of combining/merging, everysearchable string in the reverse index database 125 is associated withmultiple web links (as needed) and each web link is associated with a“legitimate contact address” that is identified from one or moresources. Thus each web link has a unique geographical address on theglobe, which is managed and tracked for updates. The extraction of thelegitimate contact address from the aggregate Whois database 123 is doneby a module called “legitimate contact address parser, which isdescribed in detail in FIG. 4, which is a sub-module of “physicaladdress and reverse index assembler 147 of FIG. 1.

The reverse index database 125 is generated during the crawlingoperation performed by a search crawler 415 of FIG. 4 which is asub-module of “physical address and reverse index assembler 147 ofFIG. 1. Not all the entries in the reverse index database are legitimatesearchable items as there are items pertaining to the illegal websites.The physical address versus reverse index lookup database 115 isderivative of the “reverse index database” 125. The entries in the“physical address versus reverse index lookup database” 115 areaugmented with the legitimate contact addresses derived by the“legitimate contact address parser” 407 of FIG. 4. The entries in the“physical address versus reverse index lookup database” 115 with thelegitimate contact addresses are the legitimate websites with authenticregistration, and rest are all squatters which are filtered during asearch operation, in accordance with the embodiment of the presentinvention.

The sub-modules of “physical address and reverse index assembler” 147 ofthe search engine server 109 executes the function of generating the“physical address versus reverse index lookup database” 115. During asearch operation if a webpage based contact address is determined to benot correlating with that located in the physical address versus reverseindex lookup database 115 entries; those websites are automaticallyfiltered from being presented to the user. The contact addresscorrelator module 149 does the function of address correlation andfiltering of squatters as explained later with the FIG. 7.

The adaptive search module 143 does the required mathematical operationfor restricting searches to within the user specified search region. Inone embodiment, the adaptive search module 143 performs this operationinteractively with the user. The user can change the shape and size ofthe search region using dropdown menus and popup windows as explainedlater with FIG. 8. The search list that is presented to the user getsadapted with any changes/updates performed in the search region.

The Topography-location assembler 131 generates the views requested bythe user by sending the request via view information receiver 129.Various databases are superimposed to generate the requested view on theclient device's display. In one embodiment according to the presentinvention it is possible to know the location of the mobile user using asearch engine server module called “location finder or receiver” 137. Abutton interface to the user from the search engine window facilitatesthe retrieval of his/her location on the world map in the user selectedsearch region on the world map, in accordance with one embodiment in thepresent invention. If the user is connected to the Internet via WiFi ora third party wireless network the GPS location of the user can bederived by the received or transmitted signal processing. The locationfinder or receiver 137 retrieves the user location based on the IPnumber of the machine or device through which the user is connected tothe Internet.

The “search string and search region size receiver” module 133 receivesthe user entered search string from the client device. According to thepresent invention the restricted search region shape and size can beprovided to the search engine via the “search string and search regionsize receiver” module 133. The user selects the shape of the searchdomain such as a square, rectangle, circle, ellipse, etc., from adropdown menu in the search engine window from the client device.Subsequently, a pop up window prompt user to enter, the dimensions ofthe search domain, such as the side of a square (L), length and width(L, and W) of the rectangle, radius (R) of the circle, major and minoraxes (“a”, and “b”) of the ellipse, etc. Another option to specify theregion restricted search operation is the complete World Wide Web, wherethe search is performed over the entire Internet. During an Internetsearch session, search results are generated and displayed on the clientdevice screen. The “current session search result list” 139 is thesearch results generated for currently entered search string which aredisplayed on the client device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system 201 for the generationof an “aggregate Whois database” derived from a plurality of Whoisdatabases maintained by different service providers, in accordance withthe present invention. There are typically a large number of Whoisdatabase servers generated and maintained by different serviceproviders. Each one of these servers may be located at differentgeographic locations. In order to use these distributed databases forthe purpose of search operation it is essential to pool all thedatabases to get a single database called herein as an “aggregate Whoisdatabase”.

The process of pooling the multiple databases and reformatting is doneby a module called a “Whois crawler”. The Whois crawler rearranges thepooled database items. The Whois crawler also extracts only theessential pieces of information that is required during an Internetsearch operation. The essential pieces of information extracted includeall information essential to identify the nature of the business that aregistered business firm is doing along with all the form of contactinformation.

In general, the generation of an “aggregate Whois database” involvesretrieving Whois data from a plurality of Whois databases maintained bydifferent service providers, and quite often the Whois databases areaccessed via an associated Whois server. A plurality of the Whoisservers 207, 209, 211, etc. are communicatively coupled to the searchengine server 215 via the Internet 217 (105 of FIG. 1 repeated). TheWhois crawler 205 crawls through all the existing Whois servers andgathers essential pieces of information to build an aggregate Whoisdatabase 203.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a system 301 having a pluralityof domain name servers communicatively coupled to a Whois server,wherein the Whois server monitors domain name registration and gathersrelevant data, in accordance with the present invention. There are webservers maintained by in different domains which get crawled during asearch operation. All of the web servers are registered on their domainname servers, to whichever the domain they belong to. A “domain namecrawler” 315 crawls through all the registration information from eachof the “domain name servers” in the set 306, and builds a Whois databasein an automated manner, which comprises the Whois domain name database319, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Anautomatically built/managed Whois database can be further reformattedmanually to suit further/additional crawling processes that aid in thebuilding of an “aggregate Whois database”.

In general, a plurality of domain name servers 307, 309, 311, etc. iscommunicatively coupled with a Whois server 303 via the Internet 305(105 of FIG. 1 repeated). A “domain name crawler” 315 from the Whoisserver 303 will crawl for all the registration information and detailsfrom each of the plurality of domain name servers 303, which includesthe server 307, 309, 311, etc. The resultant database is the “Whoisdomain name” database 319. This topology automates the collection ofWhois database information. The final Whois database will be crawled bya Whois crawler 135 of the search engine server 109 of FIG. 1, resultingin the aggregate Whois database 123 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is block diagram illustrating a system 401 for the generation ofa “Physical address versus reverse index database” and “reverse indexdatabase” using the “Physical address and Reverse index assembler”module of the search engine server. A normally generated “reverse indexdatabase” has links pointing to the web servers. It does not have anyexplicit or direct information on the geographical location of abusiness firm to which the webpage of the web link belongs to. Anadditional database is thus required which will augment the entries ofthe reverse index database with the legitimate contact address. Thelegitimate contact address is the output of a parsing of the “aggregateWhois database” record of a business firm. In one embodiment of thepresent invention the “search crawler” which builds the “reverse indexdatabase” is the part of the “physical address versus reverse indexlookup database. The “search crawler” builds the “reverse indexdatabase”. The Web link analyzer module associates the web links in thereverse index database entries with the corresponding “legitimatecontact address” and generates the “physical address versus reverseindex lookup database”.

The search engine server 403 (109 of FIG. 1 repeated) manages thegeneration of a “Physical address versus reverse index database” 411(115 of FIG. 1 repeated) and “reverse index database” 409 (125 of FIG. 1repeated) using the “Physical address and Reverse index assembler 419(147 of FIG. 1 repeated) module of the search engine server. Thelegitimate contact address parser 407 parses and extract the legitimatecontact address from the aggregate Whois database records correspondingto the business search string that appears indexed in the reverse indexdatabase 409.

The “web link analyzer” module 417 associates the legitimate contactaddress with the web link of a searchable string (search string). Anaggregate of augmented searchable string and web link entries gives riseto a new database called “physical address versus reverse index lookupdatabase 411 (115 of FIG. 1 repeated). The entries in the “physicaladdress versus reverse index lookup database” have all the necessaryinformation for each of the entries such as a link that points towebpage and legitimate contact address that points to a uniquegeographical address or (GPS) coordinates of that business firm that hashosted its webpage on a web server. Aggregate Whois Database 413 (123 ofFIG. 1 repeated) and Search Crawler 415 operate to support the othercomponents of the system 401.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary set of registration information 501 withassociated formats collected from business registration information,such as those provided to domain registration servers and thosemaintained by a Whois database. Such an exemplary set of registrationinformation can be displayed, if necessary, in an output record viewedin a network browser window, in accordance with the present invention.The “legitimate contact address parser” associated with a search engineserver extracts the fields in the contact information section providedby Whois databases or retrieved by a Whois crawler. In one embodiment ofthe present invention registration information will also be parsed andextracted to the record of aggregate Whois database, which will help inproving the registration authenticity of the business firm. A typicalbusiness information record contains a “registration informationsection”, a “business information section”, and a “contact informationsection”.

The registration information section has all the business registrationrelated information such as the domain name in which the website isregistered and hosted, valid registration date, registrationcode/number, etc.

The Business information section contains complete description of thebusiness which includes detailed textual description of the business,graphs, business charts, tables, images (of the products), etc.

The contact information section of the business registration informationrecord contains all the information which helps in contacting a firm inall the possible forms. This includes the title of the business,person's name to contact, street address of the business firm, GPSlocation of the business's firm's premise, city, state, country,telephone number, e-mail address, time zone, web link (webpage), IP(Internet protocol) address of the web server, DNS (Domain Name Server)name of the web server, etc.

The typical content and associated format of business registrationinformation record of a business firm, retrieved when it is searched ona Whois database, or viewed in a network browser window, in accordancewith the present invention, provides several categories of information.The registration information section 503 has registration number domainname 509, valid registration date and duration 511, and registrationcode/number 513. The registration number is a unique number whichidentifies the registered firm uniquely in the Whois database. Theregistered domain name is the name of the Internet domain and type suchas .net, .com, .org, etc. The registration duration is the period tillthe Whois database registration remains valid as per the subscription.

The business information section 505 has all the business details whicha firm wishes to disclose publicly for promoting its business. Thetextual description 543 describes the nature of the business of thefirm. Other pieces of information that a firm may wish to publicize aredata in the form graphs 545 data in the form of business chart 547, datalisted table 549, images 551 of the products, etc., and apart fromthese, are the other information 553.

The contact information section 507 contains all the information ofcontact details through which one can reach corresponding business firmand enquire related to their requirements. Business title 517 is a fieldwhich describes the name of the business firm as registered. Person name519, the responsible person's name for e.g. spokesperson of theorganization or the firm. Street address 521 is the physical orgeographical address of the street and location of the firm. GlobalPositioning System (GPS) location 523 is a very essential and usefulpiece of the information on which the business firm premise is situated.The city 525 is the city in which the firm is located. State 527 andcountry 529 are the state and the country to which the firm belongs to,and situated in.

Telephone number 531 is another useful piece of information throughwhich one can instantly reach the business firm and enquire on thebusiness details. E-mail address 533 field of the contact information isused for written correspondence. Web link 537 is the URL (UniversalResource Locator) of the business firm. Web server IP address 539 is theidentification of the server which hosts webpage of the business firm.The domain name 541 is the name of the web server on which the businessfirm's webpage is hosted on Internet. Time zone 535 field lets somebodyknow on the working office hours of the business firm.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the interactions of an “adaptivesearch module” of the search engine server for implementing searchregion restricted search operation, in accordance with the presentinvention. The search region restriction facilitates contextual searchoperation. Unlike predefined search region restriction in the currentlyavailable search engines, the user defined search region restrictionfacilitates on-the-fly change of the search region, arbitrarily. Also asthe user's interaction inputs are preprocessed during the searchoperation, a lot of junk search traffic is eliminated, in accordancewith the present invention. When the search string and the region of thesearch is interactively provided by the user, only those results thatfall in the search region are retrieved into the search list, thusavoiding unnecessary search.

A simple algorithm implements the intersection of the search region withthe searched location addresses for a given search string all over theworld, and finally results in a subset of the search results that fallwithin the specified searched region in the form of reduced reverseindex. It is basically those legitimate contact addresses (Cartesian orGPS longitudinal and latitudinal, coordinates) of the searched businessfirms from within the search region that is of relevance. The algorithmchecks whether an address belongs to the specified search region or not.If address belongs to it, that web link is retained in the search listotherwise not listed. To implement this algorithm we have three inputsviz. a search region specification interface with the user, searchstring and search category, and the “physical address versus reverseindex lookup database”. The entries in the “physical address versusreverse index lookup database” are basically grouped subsets of a searchstring, multiple web links with each web link associated with thecorresponding legitimate contact address. The “reverse index belongs tosearch region” computing module picks only those entries in the databasebelonging to the search region, resulting in a “reduced reverse index” asubset for a given search, a small subset of the original database. The“reduced reverse index” database points to those websites in thespecified search region.

The block diagram of FIG. 6 is illustrating the functionality 601 of an“adaptive search module” of the search engine server of the presentinvention. The search region specification interface 603 is the userinterface from search engine window on the client device, an input tothe “reverse index belongs to search region computing module” 607. Thephysical address versus reverse index lookup database is another inputto 607. A third input to 607 is the user entered “search string andsearch category” 613.

The “reverse index belongs to the search region computing module 607generates the “reduced reverse index 609, a subset of the 605. The weblinks corresponding to the entries in the “reduced reverse index” 609constitutes the “search region restricted search results” 611 and aredisplayed on the world map within the search region on the client devicefrom which the user performing the search operation.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary function 701 of“contact address correlator module” of the search engine server of thepresent invention. The principle of operation explained in this figurefacilitates in checking, whether the selected web link in the searchregion for the currently entered search string is legitimate or not. Thelegitimacy of a web link is checked against its registration in theWhois database, (or the aggregate Whois database). The legitimacy istested by comparing two pieces of address records, one derived from thewebpage of the search item and the other derived from the aggregateWhois database. A “contact information correlation module” correlatesthe two address components and computes a correlation coefficient as itsinput.

The “search accept/reject decision module” decides whether thewebpage/web-link can be retained in the ‘search region restricted searchlist” or not. The decision is done against a user entered confidencelevel factor through an appropriate interface provided in accordancewith this invention. Those correlation coefficient values which aregreater than or equal to the confidence level factor are retained in the“search region restricted search result” list, others are removedgenerating a “well correlated search list” displayed on the world map.

The block diagram of FIG. 7 illustrates the function 701 of “contactaddress correlator module” of the search engine server of the presentinvention. The “search region restricted search results” 703 (611 ofFIG. 6 repeated) is provided as input to the “webpage parser” 141 ofFIG. 1, which extract and gives rise to a “webpage based contactaddress” 705. The webpage based contact address 705 acts as one input ofthe “contact information correlation module” 707. Another input to 707is the “Whois database based legitimate contact address” 709. The“legitimate contact address” is the output of “legitimate contactaddress parser” 407 module of FIG. 4. The “contact informationcorrelation module” 707 compares and computes the “correlationcoefficient” between the webpage based contact address and thelegitimate contact address.

A “search accept/reject decision module” 713 compares two inputs onefrom 707 and another from 711 a module for user interface for specifyingthe confidence level factor. During the comparison of two coefficients,those web links from the “search region restricted search results” 703having correlation coefficient greater than or equal to user enteredconfidence factor from 711 are retained and others are filtered togenerate a “well correlated search list” 715 (to displayed on the worldmap).

FIG. 8 is an exemplary screen snapshot 801 of a world map based searchoperation supported by a search engine server, built in accordance withthe present invention, that incorporates a Whois database based searchregion restricted search operation. An option pane 807 helps a user inspecifying options, for the view, search category, search region, etc.In a search list pane 805, the searched results are displayed in thetext form as group of ten results for view. Next ten results can beviewed using the “Next” button provided in the same pane. A map pane 809displays the selected view of the map (in the image format) along withthe search results. Normally 10 search results can be convenientlydisplayed from the search list in the search list pane. In this paneuser can also setup views and mark his own places and save them as his“work map” and “work places” for later reference. A menu bar 803 has allthe general purpose menus available and the tool bar contains the toolsfor setting the right view on the map, along with the display such asGPS coordinates and the current scale of the map, etc.

The screen snapshot provided by the search region restricted searchengine, in accordance with the present invention, makes it possible fora user to manage the search process in an efficient manner. The menu bar803 contains all the menus commonly used in a network browser in whichthe search engine is opened. The search list pane 805 has all the searchresults listed in the order, as shown in the figure. The Search item-1(859), search item-2 (857), etc. in the search list are ordered with apriority determined by an internal search criteria such as the frequencyof the search string on the webpage, popularity of the webpage, etc., inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention. At the bottomof the search list pane 805 contains the search list groups 853 withnumbers assigned. Each group typically has 10 web links in it. Thenumber of web links in a group can also be set to a user defined number.The user can switch to the next group in the order by mouse clicking the“Next” button 855. The search list pane also includes some of thespecial buttons which facilitate user to personalize the search itemsfor later references. The work map 861 button facilitates to store themap; normally the user uses this button to add markers on the locationsof his interest on the map for a quick search, later. Another importantbutton is the work places 863 button, which facilitates the user to savehis search results on the map to his favorites.

The option pane 807 enables the user to do settings of his choice on themap during the search session and also settings once done can beretrieved automatically during the later search sessions. The searchfield 811 is the place where the user enters his search string for thesearch operation. Further user enters the name of the city in the field815, and the country in the field 817 if he wants to do search in somepredefined locations on the map. User provides the search region for therestricted search region using the button 813, which results in poppingup of a search region menu 845. From the search region menu user canselect various search domain shapes such as a rectangle, square, circle,ellipse, World Wide Web, and search center. During this selection, againthe user will be prompted to enter the dimensions of the search domains,such as length (L) and width (W) of the rectangle, sides of the square(L), radius (R) of the circle, major axis (a) and minor axis (b) of theellipse, search center coordinates, etc.

The “sign in” button 825 enables a user to sign in for the subscribedservices. Once signed in, the user has access to all his previouslysubscribed services with his work map, work places, etc., becomeaccessible. From there he can pay and subscribe for the services orrenew expiring services, etc. The user will also retrieve all hispersonalized work map 861 and work place 863 etc., saving from thislocation, once signed in. All the personalized setup can be saved aftersigning in, using the button save setup 821 for later retrieval.

The search can be categorized using the search category 835 button, uponmouse clicking this button results in popping up of a search categorymenu 839. Each of the search category items in the search category menu839, such as category-1 (841), category-2 (843) etc., results in furthersub menus, wherein the user can choose the subcategories; this makes thesearch more and more, context based. The search category list containsexhaustive list; also this can be further expanded depending on theemergence of new category (of business, etc.).

When the user does the restricted region search operation, for e.g. overa city; he can search for specific category of amenities in thatlocation based on his needs. The local site guide button 819 facilitatesthis feature to the user to access the location amenities offered bysome of the service providers registered in that location (or site).

The view select sub-pane 837 facilitates the user to select the worldmap view options, communicated to the search engine server 109 of theFIG. 1. If the user has mouse clicked GPS button 827, then the GPSlocation of the cursor point on the map will be shown in the bottomtoolbar menu 847 on the GPS location display 851. The GPS coordinatesare updated when the cursor moves from one location to next, and so on.The coordinates in terms of longitude and latitude of cursor point onthe world map (view) are displayed on GPS location display 851, in thetool bar 847, in one embodiment according to the present invention. Onone side of the toolbar 847, the world map display scale information 849in all the zoomed-in and zoomed-out views will be displayed.

Choosing map 829 options from the view select sub-pane 837 displays onlythe bare map (with political boundary information). If user selectssatellite view 831, the earth's satellite view will be superimposed onthe world map. If user wants all the three view options viz., GPS 827,Map 829, and satellite 831 views to be superimposed, he can then selectoverlay button 833 by mouse clicking.

FIG. 9 is flowchart illustrating an exemplary operation 901 of thesearch engine based on Whois database, in accordance with the presentinvention. The method of operation 901 performed by the search enginebegins at a block 903 with the retrieval of the search string, searchcategory, and search region interactively from the user on a clientdevice. Then, at a next block 921, the search engine generates searchresults from within a search region selected by the user, like arectangle, a square, a circle, an ellipse, or World Wide Web, along withtheir dimensions. In the next block 905 a “search region restrictedsearch results” 611 of FIG. 6 will be generated.

Then at a next block 907, the confidence level value specified by a useror provided as a default is retrieved. This is used to filter out somewebsites based on a legitimacy value or rating that is computed. Thesearch results are further filtered, at a next block 927, based on theirlegitimacy which depends on their domain name registration in order tobe crawled for Internet search operation. Prior to displaying the searchresults on the map, all the useless and misleading websites and thosethat add limited value and squatter's sites are filtered from the searchresults, and then displayed.

At the block 911, the filtering operation requires that the user enter aconfidence factor interactively. This factor is compared with thecomputed correlation factor between the “webpage based contact address”and the “legitimate contact address”. If the computed correlation factoris greater than or equal to the confidence level factor those web linkswill be considered for displaying in the search result list. The searchengine retrieves various databases that are required to generate theuser requested view in the map pane 809 of FIG. 8. The topography-linkassembler module 131 of FIG. 1 assembles all the data sets fromdifferent databases viz. GPS, map, and satellite to generate therequested view in the map pane 809. A satellite picture of the earth'ssurface overlaid on the map gives a more realistic view to the displayedsearch results. The search engine highlights all the displayed itemswithin the selected search region. The current location of the user willbe found or received and physically mapped on the world map, ifrequested, in accordance one embodiment of the present invention.

Another exemplary method of operation performed by a search engineserver to facilitate the search region restricted search operation, inaccordance with the present invention, comprises several steps offiltering output unwanted or useless websites, weeding out potentialspam websites, etc. The search engine receives the search string and thesearch category information at a block 903. Subsequently, at a nextblock 921, it receives the geographic search region information such asthe search region dimension and its shape. At a next block 905, itgenerates the search results by executing the “adaptive search module143 of FIG. 1 with “physical address versus reverse index lookupdatabase” 115 of FIG. 1 as input. Then the search engine performs thesearch operation at 905 and generates the search result list. The searchresults that are obtained at 905 are the “search region restrictedsearch results” 611 as discussed with FIG. 6.

Then, at a next block 909, the user's specification (or a defaultspecification) of a confidence level factor is received. The filteringoperation requires that the user enter a confidence level factorinteractively at 909. This factor is compared with the computedcorrelation factor between the “webpage based contact address” and the“legitimate contact address” at a next block 927. If the computedcorrelation factor is greater than or equal to the confidence levelfactor those web links will be considered for displaying in the searchresult list, otherwise filtered at the block 911. The search results atthis stage are the “well correlated search list” 715 of FIG. 7,displayed on the client device at 923.

The search engine server retrieves the GPS database 113 and physical (orlegitimate contact) address information at the block 913. Next, thesearch engine sever assembles the GPS database 113 and the physicaladdress from location database 111 of FIG. 1, at the block 915.Subsequently the requested view of display will be assembled bytopography-link assembler 131 of FIG. 1 at the block 915. The view ofthe map display will be modified using the GPS database 113, mapdatabase 119, satellite database 121 of FIG. 1, at the next block 925 ifthe satellite image of the earth's topography is requested by the user.

FIG. 10 is flowchart of an exemplary method of operation 1001, performedin conjunction with a user, in using the Whois database based searchengine, in accordance the present invention. The user typically performsthe following sequence of operations using a “search restricted worldmap based search engine”. The search operation starts with the userentering the search string and category, and the search region from thesearch engine window on the client device. Then the search enginereturns the search results from within the search region chosen by theuser on the world map. In this process, due to internal referenceaggregate Whois database all the crap sites are automatically filtered,as explained earlier with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7 and the method ofFIG. 9.

Subsequently, user does the required interaction with the websitesindicated on the world map. User tries to know more on the website hehas visited, and also add markers to indicate his own landmarks andreferences on the world map and save them for later references. He canpersonalize the search settings and current views and save them forlater sessions.

The exemplary method starts at the first block 1003 where the userenters a search string. The user's interactions with a search restrictedsearch engine server, for personalizing the search views and the searchsession setup, is of interest in this method. A user enters the searchstring and search region or domain at the block 1003 into the searchengine. In response to this, the search engine returns the searchresults and displays them on the world map within a region restricted bythe user. User selects the displayed search items and browse at the nextblock 1005 for more information.

During the browsing operations user can interact with the search enginein number of ways. In accordance with one embodiment, user decides tomark a place on the map at the next block 1007, then if he so desires,he adds a marker at the next block 1019. If the user subsequently wantsto add the site on the map into the favorite list he adds this at a nextblock 1021.

Once the search results are generated, the user can vary the searchregion or the domain size, and seek if there are any search items of hischoice in the newer (bigger or smaller) search dimensions. He may decideto vary the search domain size at the next block 1011, if required hewill vary the current search region size at a next block 1023. If theuser altogether wants to try a different search region shape from theprevious choice, (for e.g. rectangular domain replaced by a circularone), he decides at the next decision block 1013; if he wants to, theuser then defines new domain at a next block 1025; else the operation,based on user choice, moves to the next decision block 1015.

At the block 1015, the user may decide on whether he wants to conduct anew search, (probably, by a new search string); if he so desires, theuser enters a new search string and new search domain at the next block1003 again, and repeats the whole sequence of the method of operation.Else, the search ends at the next 1017.

As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, the terms “operablycoupled” and “communicatively coupled,” as may be used herein, includedirect coupling and indirect coupling via another component, element,circuit, or module where, for indirect coupling, the interveningcomponent, element, circuit, or module does not modify the informationof a signal but may adjust its current level, voltage level, and/orpower level. As one of ordinary skill in the art will also appreciate,inferred coupling (i.e., where one element is coupled to another elementby inference) includes direct and indirect coupling between two elementsin the same manner as “operably coupled” and “communicatively coupled.”

The present invention has also been described above with the aid ofmethod steps illustrating the performance of specified functions andrelationships thereof. The boundaries and sequence of these functionalbuilding blocks and method steps have been arbitrarily defined hereinfor convenience of description. Alternate boundaries and sequences canbe defined so long as the specified functions and relationships areappropriately performed. Any such alternate boundaries or sequences arethus within the scope and spirit of the claimed invention.

The present invention has been described above with the aid offunctional building blocks illustrating the performance of certainsignificant functions. The boundaries of these functional buildingblocks have been arbitrarily defined for convenience of description.Alternate boundaries could be defined as long as the certain significantfunctions are appropriately performed. Similarly, flow diagram blocksmay also have been arbitrarily defined herein to illustrate certainsignificant functionality. To the extent used, the flow diagram blockboundaries and sequence could have been defined otherwise and stillperform the certain significant functionality. Such alternatedefinitions of both functional building blocks and flow diagram blocksand sequences are thus within the scope and spirit of the claimedinvention.

One of average skill in the art will also recognize that the functionalbuilding blocks, and other illustrative blocks, modules and componentsherein, can be implemented as illustrated or by discrete components,application specific integrated circuits, processors executingappropriate software and the like or any combination thereof.

Moreover, although described in detail for purposes of clarity andunderstanding by way of the aforementioned embodiments, the presentinvention is not limited to such embodiments. It will be obvious to oneof average skill in the art that various changes and modifications maybe practiced within the spirit and scope of the invention, as limitedonly by the scope of the appended claims.

1. A search engine server that facilitates searching for content on theInternet, the search engine server comprising: a communicationsinterface; and a computer processor coupled to the communicationsinterface and operable to: receive search criteria from a client devicevia the communications interface; identify search results based upon thesearch criteria, at least some of the search results associated with oneor more businesses; receive location information corresponding to a userof the client device; access organization contact information from aWhois database relating to the one or more businesses; restrict thesearch results based upon location information for the businesses andthe location information corresponding to the user; for a plurality ofbusinesses, correlate a first contact address retrieved from a Whoisdatabase with a second contact address retrieved from a documentcorresponding to a respective business of the businesses to qualify thedocument for presentation to the client device; and transmit searchresults, including at least one qualified document, to the client devicevia the communications interface.
 2. The search engine server of claim1, wherein the computer processor is further operable to: generate ageographical mapping of the location information for the businesses tothe location information of the user; and produce the search resultswith the geographical mapping to the client device.
 3. The search engineserver of claim 2, wherein the geographical mapping includes anindication of a location of the business and an indication of a locationof the user of the client device.
 4. The search engine server of claim1, wherein: the location information for a business comprises anaddress; and the location information corresponding to the usercomprises a GPS location of the client device.
 5. The search engineserver of claim 1, wherein: the location information for a businesscomprises an address; and the location information corresponding to theuser comprises a location entered by the user of the client device. 6.The search engine server of claim 1, wherein a user of the client devicelimits a scope of the search by distance from the location informationcorresponding to the user of the client device.
 7. The search engineserver of claim 1, wherein a user of the client device limits a scope ofthe search by search region.
 8. The search engine server of claim 1,wherein a user of the client device limits a scope of the search bysearch category.
 9. The search engine server of claim 1 wherein theorganization contact information comprises at least one of a city name,a state name, a country code, a telephone number, and a GPS location.10. The search engine server of claim 1, wherein the organizationcontact information comprises ownership information for thecorresponding domain associated with the one of the businesses, thecomputer processor further operable to: determine a total number ofdomains registered for the business with the same or similar ownershipinformation; assign a priority to one of the entries of the searchresults for business if the total number of domains is determined to beover a threshold number; and use the priority to determine inclusion ofone of the entries into the search results.
 11. A method for operating asearch engine server to facilitate searching for content on theInternet, the method comprising: receiving search criteria from a clientdevice via a communications interface; identifying search results basedupon the search criteria, at least some of the search results associatedwith one or more businesses; receiving location informationcorresponding to a user of the client device; accessing organizationcontact information from a Whois database relating to the one or morebusinesses; restricting the search results based upon locationinformation for the businesses and the location informationcorresponding to the user; for a plurality of businesses, correlating afirst contact address retrieved from a Whois database with a secondcontact address retrieved from a document corresponding to a respectivebusiness of the businesses to qualify the document for presentation tothe client device; and transmitting search results, including at leastone qualified document, to the client device via the communicationsinterface.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: generating ageographical mapping of the location information for the businesses tothe location information of the user; and producing the search resultswith the geographical mapping to the client device.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, wherein the geographical mapping includes an indication of alocation of the business and an indication of a location of the user ofthe client device.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein: the locationinformation for a business comprises an address; and the locationinformation corresponding to the user comprises a GPS location of theclient device.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein: the locationinformation for a business comprises an address; and the locationinformation corresponding to the user comprises a location entered bythe user of the client device.
 16. The method of claim 11, furthercomprising limiting the scope of the search based upon distance from thelocation information corresponding to the user of the client device. 17.The method of claim 11, further comprising limiting a scope of thesearch by search region.
 18. The method of claim 11, further comprisinglimiting a scope of the search by search category.
 19. The method ofclaim 11 wherein the organization contact information comprises at leastone of a city name, a state name, a country code, a telephone number,and a GPS location.
 20. The method of claim 11, wherein the organizationcontact information comprises ownership information for thecorresponding domain associated with the one of the businesses, themethod further comprising: determining a total number of domainsregistered for the business with the same or similar ownershipinformation; assigning a priority to one of the entries of the searchresults for business if the total number of domains is determined to beover a threshold number; and using the priority to determine inclusionof one of the entries into the search results. looking up a reverseindex database, communicatively coupled to or associated with the searchengine server, for the occurrence of the plurality of words in targetdocuments and creating a target search results; and factoring in atleast the search category and the search region into the target searchresults to create the preliminary search results.